confession of sin

O Holy Spirit, as the sun is full of light and heaven full of glory, so may my heart be full of you. Give me yourself without measure, as an unimpaired fountain. I bewail my coldness, poverty, and emptiness, my imperfect vision, languid service, prayerless prayers, and praiseless praises. Suffer me not to grieve or resist you. Come as power, to expel every rebel lust. Come as teacher, leading me into all truth. Come as love, that i may adore the Father and love him as my all. Come as joy, to dwell in me and animate me. Come as beautifier, bringing loveliness out of chaos. Magnify to me your glory by being magnified in me. Amen.

adapted from The Valley of Vision: a Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

one reason i still like sesame street

as we returned from church...

adam smelled grilling meat and asked if we had any. i mumbled something about chicken and marit (she calls herself mare mare) said:
"mare mare...chikin...get it...hot!"

marit and nutella agree

thanks nicole for the reminder to stock my pantry with this amazing food!

another month day already!

if these monthly updates get old, just skip it. my blog is primarily for friends and family to keep up with what goes on from day to day in our family. today graham is 7 months old and marit is 22 months. time is passing so quickly!

graham must weigh at least 20 pounds. he is a chunk. he is getting close to sitting up on his own and he has entered a phase of frustration...he fusses when he drops his toy or when he can't reach something. he is falling into better and better sleeping habits, though he still wants to eat 6 times a day. he is eating rice cereal, oat cereal, peas, sweet potatoes, and rice puffs and boy is it messy! he still loves to jump in his jumper. he is such a mama's boy and is pretty much always content if he is being held or in his ergo.

marit is running everywhere. her words are taking off. she says a lot of two-three word phrases now: "love you," "get it," "hold it," "he dropped it," "there you go," etc. she loves to give graham tackle hugs and kisses and points to him and says "hold it." we then let her sit with him in her lap, which is funny because she is not much bigger than him. she is hilarious and has started singing with us before she goes to bed her favorite innocence mission song. her "yes" still sounds like the s word and we are not sure what to do about it. in general she is a delight (despite the occasional tantrums and the frequent need for discipline and reproof).

house update

closing: may 27th
moving: june 1st-we know it is a monday, but that is just how it is working out...let us know if you want to help!

keep us in your prayers that this process would continue to move along. we are excited, especially since one of our major drainage pipes started leaking in our basement. as my sis-in-law said, it's such good timing to move. true true.

mountain footage

on a misty morning



my wonderful grandmother has a beautiful little house in the mountains. she does not live there most of the year now, but was so gracious to allow our little family to occupy it for nearly a week. it was truly a treat to be able to afford a little time away to rest, enjoy each other, celebrate our anniversary, disconnect from chaotic life. it was truly a wonderful week even though poor graham was fighting a cold and didn't sleep so well for the first few days. we were so thankful to be visited by a dear friend (our friendship is 23 years old!), who now lives near my grandma, and her enchanting dog that the kids LOVED and i wanted to bring home. it was a lovely trip...we took much fewer photos than we should have...we were too busy relaxing!





we did a lot of walking up and down the mountain road


this is the view from the porch and dining room




i know marit is small, but do not be mistaken...this dog is BIG


graham loved this dog's soft fur...i have never seen a gentler dog with children

5 years

we celebrated our 5th anniversary while we were out of town. my brother and his sweet wife babysat for us to go on a date in the sweet little mountain town nearby. we took no pictures on our date, but we ate delicious food, wandered around the town. adam bought me this great orange hat, doing his doctorly duty to protect my fair skin from cancer. we have been resuscitating our marriage journal in the last year and are trying to write in it on important occasions to chronicle God's grace and providence in our marriage. i will include an excerpt here of what i wrote for our anniversary this year:
5/12/2009 In preparation for our 5 yr (!!!) anniversary:

"As you gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from above, from God. As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love." bonhoffer

Happy anniversary dear Adam! i love you so much more today than I did May 15, 2004. I loved you then, but that love had not yet been tried and tested. I am thankful that God is such a good covenant-keeper and that marriage has a much higher calling than simply merging two lives. There is meaning and value in covenant-keeping, in cultivating love, in displaying the grace and beauty that is there between Christ and the church. Oh my! Thank you for your grace and gentleness with me...for confronting my ugly sin with love and care so that we might be restored to unity. Let us always seek the goal of oneness and unity as we are emotionally, physically, mentally stretched with life's various happenings. What a joy it is to parent with you! It is no piece of cake though and sometimes it is downright exhausting. Graham is nearly 7 months, Marit 22 months, you are about to start residency, we are buying our first house, and we have been married 5 years!! Life just moves along! It is crazy at times, so let us continually resolve to allow Christ to work in our hearts, to sanctify us, to work grace in us that we might be gracious with one another. Let us lay aside criticism and move toward each other in love every day. I love you much dear Adam. Here's to at least 50 more years!


from our wedding






honeymoon



orange hat



on our anniversary after the kids were in bed


and thank you friends and family who have offered encouragement, babysitting, love, and general support to help us nurture our marriage. you bless us.

congratulations to dr honey bunny!

sorry for my bloglessness of late. the last few weeks have been a blur with adam graduating from medical school and the week of festivities surrounding that, buying a house and that complex process (still waiting for a closing date), and we went away to my grandmom's mountain house for 6 days. anyway, here is some footage from adam's graduation and hooding ceremony. i am so proud of him...what an accomplishment and all he has to say about it is "i can't believe how little i worked." i suppose it is somewhat anticlimactic because in reality, he is still in training. we are thrilled to be done with this part though! give him a pat on the back if you see him because he really has worked so hard (though he is modest) and been a wonderfully attentive husband and father at the same time and that is no easy feat!